Scientific research shows that for older adults, an increase in the number of large-diameter vessels in your brain means an increase of blood flow throughout your entire body.

Now, a new study shows a healthy way to help keep these vessels at maximum size to help prevent a heart or brain disaster caused by plaque build-up or blood clots.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill conducted a study on 12 healthy adults ages 60 to 80 years old. The patients were split into two groups based on their past exercise history. The first group of six had exercised for three hours a week in aerobic sports on a regular basis for 10 or more years. The second group of six had exercised less than an hour a week for 10 years or more.

Through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers found that the active subjects had a greater number of large-diameter blood vessels, which resulted in increased brain blood flow. The inactive group had smaller blood vessel radius, plus they showed a loss of small blood vessel function.

“An aerobic exercise program may be a vital part of healthy aging by preventing the narrowing and loss of cerebral vessels and consequent decrease in cerebral blood flow,” stated lead researcher Feraz Rahman, M.S., in the study report.

“We also found that a loss of small vessels is not an issue in active adults, because the average vessel size increases and blood flow is positively correlated with [vessel] radius,” Rahman added. “However, in inactive adults, the number of small blood vessels is an issue.”

Rahman, a medical student at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his UNC colleagues hope to conduct a long-term study to look at other related health factors associated with blood flow. Their findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.